Steve Roud is a Librarian, folklore scholar and creator of the Roud Folk Song Index, which contains upwards of 750,000 entries to around 45,000 English language folk songs, as found in books, recordings, manuscripts and other sources the world over. His index, and ‘Roud Numbers’ (a numbering system employed to identify the same song across many different titles) are widely acclaimed for the scope, breadth, depth and impact. Steve worked as a local studies Librarian in the London Borough of Croydon, and also served as Honorary Librarian for the Folklore Society for eighteen years. He has published books on calendar custom, popular tradition, folk belief, London lore, children’s games, and folk drama. In 2004, he was the winner of the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. In 2009, he was one of five people to be awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. This award recognises "those who have made unique or outstanding contributions to the art or science of folk dance, music or song, and/or those who have given exceptional support in furthering the aims of the Society”. For four years now, Steve has been visiting the NFC, parsing through our manuscript and book, broadside and pamphlet collections for entries to add to his index. He is an incredibly gifted, meticulous and generous scholar, who is always glad to share his expertise with us, particularly in discussion around the inherent problems in the description, cataloguing and indexing of folklore materials. It was an honour, and a great pleasure to host Steve at the NFC recently, and during his visit (for our collective benefit) I subjected him to a 75 minute interview, in which we discussed his index, the problems inherent in describing folk song, approaches to the cataloguing of folklore, conducting research in folklore archives, and the problems inherent in the digitisation of folklore records and some scholarly critique of the NFC’s online platform Dúchas.ie.
As a health warning for this episode - listeners (or viewers!) hoping to listen to scores of lovely ballads will be sorely disappointed, as our discussion essentially consists of nerding out about folklore indexes for over an hour.
Steve’s Folk Song Index can be found here, at the website of the Vaughan William’s Memorial Library: https://www.efdss.org/vwml-catalogues-and-indexes/vwml-help/roud-indexes-help
For a wonderful talk of Steve’s at the Library of Congress, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTMoN4Arvo
My thanks especially to Veronica, Andrew and Dominic in UCD Communications, for their support of the podcast, and for filming this episode!
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Steve Roud is a Librarian, folklore scholar and creator of the Roud Folk Song Index, which contains upwards of 750,000 entries to around 45,000 English language folk songs, as found in books, recordings, manuscripts and other sources the world over. His index, and ‘Roud Numbers’ (a numbering system employed to identify the same song across many different titles) are widely acclaimed for the scope, breadth, depth and impact. Steve worked as a local studies Librarian in the London Borough of Croydon, and also served as Honorary Librarian for the Folklore Society for eighteen years. He has published books on calendar custom, popular tradition, folk belief, London lore, children’s games, and folk drama. In 2004, he was the winner of the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. In 2009, he was one of five people to be awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. This award recognises "those who have made unique or outstanding contributions to the art or science of folk dance, music or song, and/or those who have given exceptional support in furthering the aims of the Society”. For four years now, Steve has been visiting the NFC, parsing through our manuscript and book, broadside and pamphlet collections for entries to add to his index. He is an incredibly gifted, meticulous and generous scholar, who is always glad to share his expertise with us, particularly in discussion around the inherent problems in the description, cataloguing and indexing of folklore materials. It was an honour, and a great pleasure to host Steve at the NFC recently, and during his visit (for our collective benefit) I subjected him to a 75 minute interview, in which we discussed his index, the problems inherent in describing folk song, approaches to the cataloguing of folklore, conducting research in folklore archives, and the problems inherent in the digitisation of folklore records and some scholarly critique of the NFC’s online platform Dúchas.ie.
As a health warning for this episode - listeners (or viewers!) hoping to listen to scores of lovely ballads will be sorely disappointed, as our discussion essentially consists of nerding out about folklore indexes for over an hour.
Steve’s Folk Song Index can be found here, at the website of the Vaughan William’s Memorial Library: https://www.efdss.org/vwml-catalogues-and-indexes/vwml-help/roud-indexes-help
For a wonderful talk of Steve’s at the Library of Congress, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTMoN4Arvo
My thanks especially to Veronica, Andrew and Dominic in UCD Communications, for their support of the podcast, and for filming this episode!
Blúiríní Béaloidis 35 - The Civil War (with Dr. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh)
Blúiríní Béaloidis Folklore Podcast
1 hour 46 seconds
3 years ago
Blúiríní Béaloidis 35 - The Civil War (with Dr. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh)
The Civil War was a schismatic moment in Irish history, and the fault lines it left split families, tore apart communities and turned former comrades in arms against one another in a bitterly divisive period of violence and conflict. According to historian Anne Dolan, ‘The memory of the Irish Civil War has been assumed, distorted, [and] misunderstood. It has been manipulated, underestimated, but most of all, ignored’.
Now, 100 years on, in marking the centenary of this period, The Civil War Memory project is currently underway (a collaboration between The National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin and award winning documentary filmmakers Scratch Films) to document and preserve oral testimonies, reminiscences and accounts concerning the Civil War. The collecting project will result in a body of archival material which will be deposited at the NFC for posterity, with two documentaries covering the collecting process being aired on RTÉ this autumn. If you would like to contribute to the project, please reach out to us at bealoideas@ucd.ie
To take me through the project, and to discuss this phase of our history in more detail I’m honoured to be joined by my friend and colleague Dr. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, Director of the National Folklore Collection. Join us as we discuss silence, memory and the trauma of war.
Audio timecodes:
10:58: Commandant Horgan in conversation with Séamas Mac Philib, 20 May 1980. Horgan explains how he and his brother were on opposite sides of the conflict, and how his mother would keep them separate when they would visit the family home.
14:36: Kathleen Farell in conversation with Séamas Mac Philib, 6 March 1980. Kathleen describes how IRA men were hidden in her house.
16:10: Patrick Galvin in conversation with Séamas Mac Philib, 10 January 1980. Patrick describes how he was unable to return to his job after the Civil War, and was fired when it was learnt that he had fought on the anti-Treaty side.
32:22: Patrick Galvin in conversation with Séamas Mac Philib, 10 January 1980. Patrick relates how it was difficult to shoot against former friends and comrades. Describes the 'great boys' he fought alongside in 1916 and in the 'Tan War' (the War of Independence) but states that everyone has a certain principle by which they must stand.
39:03: John O'Brien in conversation with Séamas Mac Philib, 04 November 1979. John relates local information concerning the assassination of Michael Collins. Is reluctant to share what he has heard out of respect for local families, and remarks that it could be dangerous.
Thanks to Tiernan Gaffney for editing these pieces from our sound archive!
Blúiríní Béaloidis Folklore Podcast
Steve Roud is a Librarian, folklore scholar and creator of the Roud Folk Song Index, which contains upwards of 750,000 entries to around 45,000 English language folk songs, as found in books, recordings, manuscripts and other sources the world over. His index, and ‘Roud Numbers’ (a numbering system employed to identify the same song across many different titles) are widely acclaimed for the scope, breadth, depth and impact. Steve worked as a local studies Librarian in the London Borough of Croydon, and also served as Honorary Librarian for the Folklore Society for eighteen years. He has published books on calendar custom, popular tradition, folk belief, London lore, children’s games, and folk drama. In 2004, he was the winner of the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. In 2009, he was one of five people to be awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. This award recognises "those who have made unique or outstanding contributions to the art or science of folk dance, music or song, and/or those who have given exceptional support in furthering the aims of the Society”. For four years now, Steve has been visiting the NFC, parsing through our manuscript and book, broadside and pamphlet collections for entries to add to his index. He is an incredibly gifted, meticulous and generous scholar, who is always glad to share his expertise with us, particularly in discussion around the inherent problems in the description, cataloguing and indexing of folklore materials. It was an honour, and a great pleasure to host Steve at the NFC recently, and during his visit (for our collective benefit) I subjected him to a 75 minute interview, in which we discussed his index, the problems inherent in describing folk song, approaches to the cataloguing of folklore, conducting research in folklore archives, and the problems inherent in the digitisation of folklore records and some scholarly critique of the NFC’s online platform Dúchas.ie.
As a health warning for this episode - listeners (or viewers!) hoping to listen to scores of lovely ballads will be sorely disappointed, as our discussion essentially consists of nerding out about folklore indexes for over an hour.
Steve’s Folk Song Index can be found here, at the website of the Vaughan William’s Memorial Library: https://www.efdss.org/vwml-catalogues-and-indexes/vwml-help/roud-indexes-help
For a wonderful talk of Steve’s at the Library of Congress, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVTMoN4Arvo
My thanks especially to Veronica, Andrew and Dominic in UCD Communications, for their support of the podcast, and for filming this episode!
